BCWF
12-05-2017, 01:28 PM
http://bcwf.net/images/M_images/vedder1.png
http://bcwf.net/images/stories/news_release/2017/vedder.pd (http://bcwf.net/images/stories/news_release/2017/vedder.pdf)f
Salmon Spawning gravel removal needs to stop on the Vedder River
The Vedder-Chilliwack River comprises the most important angling stream in regards to angler days in British Columbia. It is the cornerstone of the Lower Mainland’s salmon and steelhead fisheries. Nevertheless, it is a watershed that has suffered considerably in terms of human impacts to its habitat capacity. The BC Wildlife Federation is extremely concerned that ongoing gravel removal in the Vedder is damaging and a needless impact on the river system.
The BC Wildlife Federation and a number of stewardship groups met with three levels of government on November 27, 2017 about the Vedder River Management Area Plan and the Sediment Removal program and process. BCWF director Phillip Milligan and Dr. Marvin Rosenau, BCWF committee advisor on fisheries issues, attended the meeting with the Cities of Abbotsford, Chilliwack and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNROD). Dr. Rosenau pointed out that one impact to the river that seems avoidable is the removal of gravel from its lower reaches every two years to provide freeboard for flood protection.
Gravel No Longer Needed For Flood Control
The Vedder-Chilliwack River is a gravel rich watershed and has typically seen large volumes depositing in the lower drainage and removal has been one of the primary options for maintaining flood levels. However, in the last decade this river has shown remarkable declines in these volumes and this may be due to a lessening of large floods over the last several years and continuing recovery in the drainage of the large-scale damage due to poor forestry practices over the previous century.
Despite an annual average deposition of only 800 cubic meters per annum in the floodway from 2014-2016, the government agencies permitted the City of Chilliwack to construct large extraction pits in the stream and authorized removal of up to 100,000 cubic meters of gravel. It should be noted that the stream beds of the Vedder River and Canal have actually already degraded substantially since the 1990s even before the 2016 authorizations had taken place.
Too much gravel has been taken out and the stream may be, on its own accord, “cleaning itself out”. What makes this even more troubling is that most of the stream now has considerable capacity for these sorts of floods given that the dikes were raised again in 2010. Engineered-flow modelling has shown that, except for a restricted and problematic location on the north dike near Greendale, the floodway now has sufficient capacity to withstand a 1:200 year flood and absorb the large volumes of gravel that might be recruited in such an event. Yet all three levels of government continue to unnecessarily allow the City of Chilliwack to extract this gravel.
Inadequate Site Monitoring and Compliance
Phillip Milligan reports that gravel removal contractors were allowed to work long past the normal work window when fish were already spawning. He said, “We were told that the two contractors removing gravel from the river were behind schedule on extracting the agreed upon tonnage, so instead of cleaning up the construction site for the September 15shut down date, a request was made to extend the date they had to get out of the river to September 30, and the request was approved by provincial and federal ministries.”
Milligan said, “We have had many observers on the river taking notes and pictures of the gravel extraction and it has not been a pretty site, nor has there been adequate monitoring of the site by FLNROD, who only visited the site once.” Milligan is concerned that testing for turbidity seemed to be less than satisfactory and no pre or post testing statistics were supplied at the meeting. He worries that berms built around the evacuation site were built with the sand and sediments dug out of the hole, which is not acceptable by government standards as the sand and sediments are so unstable they can be easily washed down stream if the river rises in a rain event silting up potential spawning gravel beds.
BCWF representatives made it clear to the agencies that regular gravel removal is no longer required and is not required in the foreseeable future. The Vedder River is a prime resource for the fishing enjoyment of BCWF members and other sports fishers, and best management practices must be in place to protect our future heritage when any work is authorized that might affect the health of the river.
BCWF president Harvey Andrusak said, “Given our continuing collapse of salmon and steelhead stocks in the Fraser River and other parts of the Greater Georgia Basin, the BC Wildlife Federation stands firm against such damaging activities to our natural resources such as the unwarranted ongoing Vedder River and Canal gravel extractions. “
It takes members of the BCWF and other like-minded stewardship groups to question and challenge any possible harm to rivers, streams and lakes that could cause irreparable damage to our environment from construction sites authorized or not. The BCWF and its members will continue to monitor the impact of the gravel extraction not only in the Vedder River, but anywhere in the Fraser River and its tributaries. The BC Wildlife Federation has developed a conservation app that BCWF members can use to immediately report any illegal in-stream work to the appropriate authorities.
Download the Conservation App here!
Android
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=BCWF+conservation+app&c=apps&utm_content=buffer1a736
Apple
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/conservation-app/id1151528829?mt=8
For Further Information Contact:
BCWF President Harvey Andrusak
Email: handrusak@shaw.ca Phone:250-551-3674 (tel:(250)%20551-3674)
BCWF Director Phillip Milligan
Email:Phillipmilligan@telus.net Phone: 604 618 8443 (tel:(604)%20618-8443)
BCWF Communications
Tel: (604) 882-9988 ext. 231 (tel:(604)%20882-9988) Cell: (604) 886-2614 (tel:(604)%20886-2614)
communications@bcwf.bc.ca
http://bcwf.net/images/stories/news_release/2017/vedder.pd (http://bcwf.net/images/stories/news_release/2017/vedder.pdf)f
Salmon Spawning gravel removal needs to stop on the Vedder River
The Vedder-Chilliwack River comprises the most important angling stream in regards to angler days in British Columbia. It is the cornerstone of the Lower Mainland’s salmon and steelhead fisheries. Nevertheless, it is a watershed that has suffered considerably in terms of human impacts to its habitat capacity. The BC Wildlife Federation is extremely concerned that ongoing gravel removal in the Vedder is damaging and a needless impact on the river system.
The BC Wildlife Federation and a number of stewardship groups met with three levels of government on November 27, 2017 about the Vedder River Management Area Plan and the Sediment Removal program and process. BCWF director Phillip Milligan and Dr. Marvin Rosenau, BCWF committee advisor on fisheries issues, attended the meeting with the Cities of Abbotsford, Chilliwack and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNROD). Dr. Rosenau pointed out that one impact to the river that seems avoidable is the removal of gravel from its lower reaches every two years to provide freeboard for flood protection.
Gravel No Longer Needed For Flood Control
The Vedder-Chilliwack River is a gravel rich watershed and has typically seen large volumes depositing in the lower drainage and removal has been one of the primary options for maintaining flood levels. However, in the last decade this river has shown remarkable declines in these volumes and this may be due to a lessening of large floods over the last several years and continuing recovery in the drainage of the large-scale damage due to poor forestry practices over the previous century.
Despite an annual average deposition of only 800 cubic meters per annum in the floodway from 2014-2016, the government agencies permitted the City of Chilliwack to construct large extraction pits in the stream and authorized removal of up to 100,000 cubic meters of gravel. It should be noted that the stream beds of the Vedder River and Canal have actually already degraded substantially since the 1990s even before the 2016 authorizations had taken place.
Too much gravel has been taken out and the stream may be, on its own accord, “cleaning itself out”. What makes this even more troubling is that most of the stream now has considerable capacity for these sorts of floods given that the dikes were raised again in 2010. Engineered-flow modelling has shown that, except for a restricted and problematic location on the north dike near Greendale, the floodway now has sufficient capacity to withstand a 1:200 year flood and absorb the large volumes of gravel that might be recruited in such an event. Yet all three levels of government continue to unnecessarily allow the City of Chilliwack to extract this gravel.
Inadequate Site Monitoring and Compliance
Phillip Milligan reports that gravel removal contractors were allowed to work long past the normal work window when fish were already spawning. He said, “We were told that the two contractors removing gravel from the river were behind schedule on extracting the agreed upon tonnage, so instead of cleaning up the construction site for the September 15shut down date, a request was made to extend the date they had to get out of the river to September 30, and the request was approved by provincial and federal ministries.”
Milligan said, “We have had many observers on the river taking notes and pictures of the gravel extraction and it has not been a pretty site, nor has there been adequate monitoring of the site by FLNROD, who only visited the site once.” Milligan is concerned that testing for turbidity seemed to be less than satisfactory and no pre or post testing statistics were supplied at the meeting. He worries that berms built around the evacuation site were built with the sand and sediments dug out of the hole, which is not acceptable by government standards as the sand and sediments are so unstable they can be easily washed down stream if the river rises in a rain event silting up potential spawning gravel beds.
BCWF representatives made it clear to the agencies that regular gravel removal is no longer required and is not required in the foreseeable future. The Vedder River is a prime resource for the fishing enjoyment of BCWF members and other sports fishers, and best management practices must be in place to protect our future heritage when any work is authorized that might affect the health of the river.
BCWF president Harvey Andrusak said, “Given our continuing collapse of salmon and steelhead stocks in the Fraser River and other parts of the Greater Georgia Basin, the BC Wildlife Federation stands firm against such damaging activities to our natural resources such as the unwarranted ongoing Vedder River and Canal gravel extractions. “
It takes members of the BCWF and other like-minded stewardship groups to question and challenge any possible harm to rivers, streams and lakes that could cause irreparable damage to our environment from construction sites authorized or not. The BCWF and its members will continue to monitor the impact of the gravel extraction not only in the Vedder River, but anywhere in the Fraser River and its tributaries. The BC Wildlife Federation has developed a conservation app that BCWF members can use to immediately report any illegal in-stream work to the appropriate authorities.
Download the Conservation App here!
Android
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=BCWF+conservation+app&c=apps&utm_content=buffer1a736
Apple
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/conservation-app/id1151528829?mt=8
For Further Information Contact:
BCWF President Harvey Andrusak
Email: handrusak@shaw.ca Phone:250-551-3674 (tel:(250)%20551-3674)
BCWF Director Phillip Milligan
Email:Phillipmilligan@telus.net Phone: 604 618 8443 (tel:(604)%20618-8443)
BCWF Communications
Tel: (604) 882-9988 ext. 231 (tel:(604)%20882-9988) Cell: (604) 886-2614 (tel:(604)%20886-2614)
communications@bcwf.bc.ca